This is the last weekend of April, and I'm ending the month on a good (writing) note (because everything outside writing still leaves a lot to be desired). I'm now just short of 10K words for Voices in the Briars, and so far things are moving pretty smoothly. I do have to be a lot more aware of the pace since the book's got two alternating POVs, and each is allowed no more than 13 chapters if I want some room for extra text during the revisions.
Starting next weekend, I'll be juggling writing this book and revising The Dubious Commode, which will be a lot slower as a result (not complaining, actually, since I've got plenty of time until the July release date). I've also updated the Book News page with the rest of this year's calendar, and Voices in the Briars now has a November 1 release date.
In other news, I'm still a bit hung up on Young Royals and have been reading a handful of fanfics here and there. Again that's nostalgia at work considering how involved I was in some fandoms back in the day. Those were the earlier years of writing practice, for which I'm grateful. Had it not been for fanfiction and the supportive communities I was a part in, I wouldn't have developed my confidence in taking on original characters after cutting my teeth on derivative work.
Not gonna lie, but the series really called to mind my early years writing and publishing gay YA books. I guess my current output has some of those elements in there since they now tend to skew New Adult, but those were the days. If I have the story for it, I'll dip back in to the YA pool, but I found my comfortable little corner now, writing about older characters (however slightly older they might be compared to my mid-teen characters before). And I'm enjoying this semi-limbo state of development between adolescence and adulthood, but who knows what the future holds? I might ease further into older adulthood in time, and I'm down with that.
I also finally watched the second season of Heartstopper, which I liked a little less than the first season, I'm afraid. The Paris trip felt like a filler, and I found the more interesting and significant events in those episodes where the kids were back home. I might be tarred and feathered for saying this, but I wish the Paris trip were excluded in this season in favor of exploring the more serious issues involving Charlie's eating disorder, Tara's family's bigotry, and Nick's family troubles. That said, if the season was just following the graphic novel, the cliffhanger-ish ending is okay since there's a third season in the works.
I'm still greedily snapping up whatever e-books catch my attention, and my Kindle app is filling up faster than I can chip away at it. Going over my library to clean it up and hold on to those books I consider to be keepers is another deep dive into nostalgia and those writers whose books I used to eat up the moment they're published.
So many talented authors who were active in the past, especially when the gay romance market exploded with so many small presses appearing to cover that niche, are nowhere to be seen anymore, and even their websites are gone. It's really depressing as a fan of their work, and I do hope they're at least doing well in their personal lives even if they've given up on writing and publishing. There are new writers coming out every day, so these favorite authors do get their works pushed to the back as a result, which is doing their talent a great disservice, but it is what it is. I do have copies of their books in my app, and at least I can reread them at my leisure, which is one way of honoring their hard work.
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